The Wandering God

13 ... Only to Find What You Seek Without Effort 1/2

...得來全不費工夫
...dé lái quán bù fèi gōng fu
...only to find what you seek without effort.
... only to find what you seek right under your nose.
(This chapter's title is a continuation of the idiom started in the title of chapter 12.)

The painting was old and highly stylized. Strokes of ink, both bold and fine, showed a woman, willow thin, standing on a river bank while rain poured down. The woman held a parasol over her shoulder, and the lines of ink that made her eyes were cast down in modest sadness at the river below.

The artist had made efforts to capture the ripples of the rain on the water, and the colors bled together softly, overlayed with grey, exactly as they would look on a rainy day.

I folded my arms, the silk of my gown giving a soft rasp as my sleeves crossed. I tried to read the signature seal of the artist, but the red seal ink had bled so much I could not decipher the characters.

The title of the painting I could read however. The Rain Goddess's Regret crawled in cursive like insects across the bottom right corner of the painting.

I snorted. Aside from the subject matter, it was a fine painting.

I turned and leisurely paced the length of Sanli's quarters, the silk of my dress swaying with my steps. It was a comfortable looking room, though cluttered, with couches to take a book and recline on placed here and there among the shelves.The window shades were all open, letting in sunlight. Outside I could see the blue ocean stretching away to the north and east.

I studied the things around me, evaluating what light they shed on their owner. Although I had been in this room a week before, it had been uninvited, and I had felt rushed and unable to explore without fear of a servant walking in and questioning my presence.

Now I had been invited, or more ordered, to come here, by the room's owner himself. "Go to my quarters and wait there. NOW." Sanli had said as he stepped between Kageyama and me and pointed to the ceiling and the rooms above. I had quickly complied, not wanting to stay in the room with the bristling kitsune longer than necessary.

Taunting Kageyama was fun, but I knew when to step away.

I approached one of the large bookshelves Sanli had in his room, picking up a letter opener with a handle carved like a turtle, listening to the shouted conversation in the study below.

"There's no bloody way she's staying here! I won't have her near Ermi, or you. "

"Ermi seems to like her quite a bit. I don't see what the probl-"

"She's dangerous Sanli! Are you not listening to me?!"

I ran my finger along the blade of the opener, letting the metal slice my skin, till blood beaded on the tip. I placed the opener back and stuck the finger in my mouth, tasting the sharp twang until my skin swiftly knit back together again.